Searching Questions on Storage for Video Surveillance and Data

SecurityNewsDesk’s Tim Compston finds out where vendors think the future of storage for video surveillance and other data is headed

As more and more business functions are reliant on cloud-based storage we weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to store security system information. Is local storage still a better option for data heavy video surveillance systems for example or for added redundancy? What about the hidden costs of upgrading the IP infrastructure so there is the right bandwidth in place? How secure is ‘the cloud’?

We talk to vendors to find out about the innovative physical and ‘cloud-based’ storage solutions they are bringing to market and what the future holds with ultra-high resolution cameras looming on the horizon. A Video Surveillance Trends report by Seagate – the data storage specialist – serves to underline the concerns that organisations have regarding their current storage arrangements and the growing volume of data with 44 percent saying that one of the key challenges with their ‘existing primary storage media’ relates to capacity.

Keeping an open mindAsking Thomas Lausten, Vice President, EMEA at Milestone, where the storage of data from security systems should happen, his immediate response is, essentially, ‘wherever the user would like it to be stored’: “That is one of the beauties of open platform technology. What we are seeing now is that more and more cloud service providers are certifying their solutions with Milestone. We have always certified Microsoft Azure as cloud storage for us.”

Expanding on his initial comments, Lausten adds that Milestone is certainly not in the business of telling anybody that they should either store their video footage in the cloud or locally: “We let it depend on their actual need and the open platform technology allows them to choose the perfect platform.”On the product development front, Lausten confirms that Milestone is paying special attention to tuning up storage performance: “We have multiple releases of our XProtect platform each year and one of the areas that is getting a special focus in an up and coming release – scheduled to come out before IFSEC – is the performance in handling video data.” To round off our discussion, Lausten flags up the fact that, due to legislation, it simply may not be possible to store video surveillance up in the cloud for certain jurisdictions while it is perfectly okay for other countries. Whatever the storage options available, Thomas Lausten agrees that the whole question of storage is far more important today than it was even a year ago.

Storage dealsIn other connected developments it was announced last September that WD – a Western Digital Company – and Milestone were partnering to make Milestone’s Arcus video surveillance software available on WD’s My Cloud Business Series network-attached storage (NAS) systems with the My Cloud OS 3 operating system. In practical terms the step to integrate Arcus into My Cloud OS 3 means that users can transform their My Cloud Business Series NAS Systems into networked video recording systems for their offices or homes. In addition, WD and Milestone anticipate that Arcus will be made available for other My Cloud systems, such as the My Cloud Expert Series, in the future.

---

Read the full article to get the industry professional's overall point of view about storing VMS data.